As the link notes, just getting older puts a person at risk. And there's nothing we can do about that, of course. But some risks are preventable.

Tobacco usage is probably the biggest preventable risk factor for developing several different types of cancer. People who smoke are well aware of this, but the addiction must be so strong that they cannot overcome it.

People working with certain chemicals are at risk. Working with asbestos or cadmium or nickel can be dangerous.

Then there are factors such as alcohol and diet. More than two drinks a day over a lifetime can increase the risk of mouth and throat cancers. People whose diet is high in fat have an increased risk of colon and other cancers. And being overweight puts a person at risk as well.

We cannot do anything about our family history, or our age, of course, but we can do something about making critical decisions about what we're going to be eating, how much alcohol we want to drink, and whether or not we want to smoke.

And finally, there is the fact that a certain percentage of cancers, if caught early enough, can be cured. My mother-in-law died of breast cancer. She had all the symptoms for many months before she finally went to her doctor, but by then it was too late. Nevertheless, she did manage to live for seven more years with tamoxifen treatments.

Had she gone in for regular mammograms, or even yearly check-ups, which she did not do, she might well have survived.

A friend of ours had acid reflux for years, progressively growing worse, but he didn't seek medical help until it had turned into throat cancer. He finally had the surgery, but, again, it was too late, and he died last month. Whereas the actor Michael Douglas, suffering from the same sort of cancer, did get early treatment and does seem to be cured.

Glycine is a nonessential amino acid found in sugar cane, and such high-protein foods as meat, fish, dairy and legumes. A new study, from the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to be published in Science, has shown that fast-growing cancer cells have an appetite for glycine.

This news is interesting in light of the results of another study, released only two months ago and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showing a link between red meat and cancer, and cardiovascular disease as well.

Cancer is the name of the bogeyman in our time and age. It has replaced the nuclear winter bogeyman of the Cold War, and now fulfills all the bogeyman functions...

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If I'm lucky, I'll get old enough to die of cancer. It's in the family, in my grandfather's (father side) line. If I'm even more lucky, I'll get spared. But I don't expect that.

Said grandfather died on his way to Stalingrad in 1942, too young to die of cancer. But two of his three siblings died of cancer in their 70s, and one of his three children already did (aged 69, in 2006) - my own father and his twin brother don't show any symptoms so far, luckily.

We'll see. Rolling a die a day... cancer shall in any case not pre-emptively poison my lifetime by me preoccupying myself with my own belly, body, diet & health. I have a life to live, after all!

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Threads such as this one, which tend to dominate the "Hot Topics Zone", capitalise on fear of the bogeyman. If you're afraid, you'll try to get all the info, stock ammo, build your private anti-nuclear bunker, eat only approved food, behave like a generic nutcase. While the only thing to fear, actually, is fear itself, folks...

Threads such as this one, which tend to dominate the "Hot Topics Zone", capitalise on fear of the bogeyman. If you're afraid, you'll try to get all the info, stock ammo, build your private anti-nuclear bunker, eat only approved food, behave like a generic nutcase. While the only thing to fear, actually, is fear itself, folks...

The other extreme of this position would be : "We are all going to die anyway, so who cares. It's all the same."

Threads such as this one, which tend to dominate the "Hot Topics Zone", capitalise on fear of the bogeyman. If you're afraid, you'll try to get all the info, stock ammo, build your private anti-nuclear bunker, eat only approved food, behave like a generic nutcase. While the only thing to fear, actually, is fear itself, folks...

The other extreme of this position would be : "We are all going to die anyway, so who cares. It's all the same."

Yes we are all going to die and sometimes we have no choice as to how. But anyone who sees a loved one die from cancer would not be so complacent about dieing and would do what they can to avoid the normal poisons such as cigarettes.

Glycine is a nonessential amino acid found in sugar cane, and such high-protein foods as meat, fish, dairy and legumes. A new study, from the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to be published in Science, has shown that fast-growing cancer cells have an appetite for glycine.

This news is interesting in light of the results of another study, released only two months ago and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showing a link between red meat and cancer, and cardiovascular disease as well.

Enjoying yourself poking fun at people who are at least trying to live a healthier life, teilhard?

As I've said ad infinitum, but which you have obviously not noticed in my posts, there are going to be factors in our lives which we cannot avoid, so it would stand to reason that we should make some effort to avoid the dangers that we can.

As arielg has said (more than once), just shaking your head and shrugging your shoulders and saying that we're all going to die someday anyway, so eat, drink and be merry just isn't a very sane way of looking at our lives.

As we've grown older, my husband and I have done a lot of research into the connections between diet and exercise and how these factors could lead to us being healthier. And, as I've said before (many times), our reading led us to give up meat, and then dairy, and to get out and walk more. It's paid off for us.

For the life of me, I will never understand how anybody could find trying to better yourself physically would be looked upon as a joke, or why anybody would want to criticise people who are trying to up the odds of good health in their favour.

For the life of me, I will never understand how anybody could find trying to better yourself physically would be looked upon as a joke, or why anybody would want to criticise people who are trying to up the odds of good health in their favour.

I bet you they do not think it is so funny when they have a toothache. Then reality sets in.